The Legends of Zelda
by Proggost
Summary: It's just another night in the Desert Breeze Tavern, and once again the patrons have started telling old stories. Sometimes, though, they don't all agree on how the stories go.


It was evening in New Hyrule Castle town, and the hustle and bustle of its day was giving way to the quiet of night as hawkers packed up their stalls and tradesmen shuttered their workshops. In the Desert Breeze Tavern, the usual crowd of travellers and townspeople were gathered. The setting sun threw shafts of crimson light through the tavern's windows. One of these shafts fell at the end of bar, highlighting three figures there.

One of these was the proprietor, Myrra, who stood behind the bar. She was a broad and imposing woman, with dusky skin and flaming-red hair. Decades of running the Desert Breeze had taught her both the welcoming smile and the watchful gaze that were fixed more-or-less permanently upon her face. The gaze, together with her striking appearance, was enough to stop most trouble before it started. But the smile was genuine, and most of those that frequented her tavern counted her as a friend.

The other two figures, sitting at the bar together, were engaged in a spirited discussion. Myrra knew them both - Gonda and Thaddues - though they didn't seem to have known each other before tonight. Gonda was a wiry, bearded old trader from an outlying province who stayed at the Desert Breeze whenever business brought him into the castle town. Thaddeus was a student at the Royal Hylian University, and he'd recently taken to frequenting Myrra's tavern in the evenings. Tonight Myrra had found herself listening with some interest to their conversation. Thaddeus had begun by asking Gonda what news of the wider world he'd brought to town. They'd spoken of trade and of relations between the provinces, and it and quickly become clear that there was more upon which they disagreed than agreed. Then Thaddeus made a passing reference to an old story, and Gonda had pointed out that some detail he'd mentioned was wrong. While Gonda's age hadn't yet kept him from travelling, it had gradually made him cantankerous, and having gotten started, he quickly fell into telling the whole tale as he knew it. This was when Myrra's ears had pricked up, for as Gonda began, she realized this wasn't just any story, but the oldest and most famous legend in the kingdom: the Legend of Zelda and the Hero. Gonda began:

"Long ago, before the time of the grandmothers of our grandfathers, there was a great and prosperous kingdom, the Kingdom of Old Hyrule. Within this kingdom, it was said that there existed a sacred place where the Triforce, gift of the Goddesses and token of their benevolence, lay hidden. The Triforce, it was said, had the power to grant wishes. The royal lineage of Hyrule held its location a closely-guarded secret, and old and powerful magic lay over the entrance to that place. Many adventurers came to Hyrule seeking the Triforce, with some wish or another in their hearts, but few could discover its hiding place, and none could gain entry to the sacred realm in which it dwelt.

None, that is, until that dark day when the King of Thieves, Ganondorf Dragmire," - at this Thaddeus rolled his eyes - " came to pay tribute to the King of Hyrule. He, too, sought the way to the Triforce, and the wishes he held in his heart were dark indeed. The young princess of Hyrule, Zelda sensed his evil intent. With the help of a forest boy, she opened the way to the sacred realm, hoping use the Triforce herself to defeat Ganondorf. But her plans went awry. With the Sacred Realm opened, Ganondorf entered first and seized the Triforce. He made his wish: to rule over all the land, and with this wish, Hyrule was plunged into seven years of darkness.

For those seven years, Ganondorf reigned supremely, and he reigned cruelly. The theives and monsters who served him had ran rampant over the land. But though the people of Hyrule began to despair under that false king's rule, a glimmer of hope remained. For when Ganondorf had made his wish, the Triforce had split in three. Ganondorf himself had kept one piece, but the others were hidden within two who had been chosen by destiny. One of these was Princess Zelda herself, wise beyond her years. The other was the courageous Hero of Time foretold in prophecy - none other than Zelda's childhood friend, the green-clad forest boy."

Thaddeus could no longer contain himself. "Hero of Time?" he interrupted. "That isn't right, he's called the Hero of Hyrule! What does time have to do with anything? And besides-"

"If you'll just be patient," rejoined Gonda with some measure of irritation, "you'll find out what it has to do with things. Anyway, this was how I learned the story. It's how we all tell it in Anouki.

"Now where was I? Ah yes - for seven years the forest boy had slept, protected by the magic of the last great Sage, Rauru, until he became a man. When he awoke, Rauru gave him his mission: to find and awaken seven new sages, themselves chosen by fate, to combat the false king. High and low the Hero searched, doing battle with monsters, proving his courage and cunning against the traps and hazards of the ancient temples, and setting wrongs to right." Gonda elaborated at some length on the Hero's swashbuckling adventures as he sought and found seven sages Finally his tale drew to its end:

"Aided by the magic of awakened seven sages, the Hero of Time laid seige to Ganondorf's castle, defeated him in single combat, and sealed him away in the sacred realm. The people rejoiced, and peace returned to the land under Princess Zelda's rule. As for the hero, all in the land would have praised and rewarded him - but he was not to be found. After striking the killing blow against Ganondorf's monstrous form, he had vanished without a trace. Was he dead? Had he fled? Was he still living in secret, somewhere? None knew the truth. And so, no sooner had the seven-year darkness come to its end that the Hero of Time passed into legend."

There was a short pause as the others realized that Gonda had finished. "That was well-told, old fella." said Myrra. "Though I admit the particulars aren't quite how I heard them when I grew up."

"The particulars?" Said Thaddeus, his annoyance now beyond restraint. "That was the most absurd distortion of the legend I've ever had the misfortune of hearing!" "Really?" replied Gonda, "I guess that's not saying much, coming from you. When was it those wispy hairs started sprouting on your cheeks? Last week?" The barb was a mild one, but Thaddeus was galled nonetheles. "I'm old enough to know how the Legend of Zelda ought to go - how it's properly told!" "Oh?" Said Myrra, with a knowing smirk. "Well, why don't you properly tell us then?"

Thaddeus seemed to miss the sublte sarcasm of the question, ego triumphing over perceptiveness. "Hmph. Gladly." He said. Taking a long draw from his wine glass, he steadied himself, sat up straight on his stool and puffed out his meager chest. "The Legend of Zelda and The Hero of Hyrule-"

"Hero of Hyrule, my sore buttocks." grumbled Gonda. "Foolish name. Obviously the story's about Hyrule." Thaddeus ignored him. "Ahem. The legend takes place long ago in a distant land, a place now lost to us. Indeed, Hyrule it was called. The greatest treasures of the royal family of Hyrule were the Triforces, golden triangles whose magic was great and mysterious. For generations, the Kings of Hyrule had wielded these Triforces to ensure the prosperity of the kingdom. But these artefacts aroused the jealousy of the vile Prince of Darkness, whose name was Ganon - not Ganondorf, as *apparently* some imagine." This brought a chuckle from Myrra and a sullen glare from Gonda.

"No mortal man was Ganon," Thaddeus continued, "no mere leader of theives. He was a great monster, his shape half-human and half-boar, and he commanded armies of moblins, zoras, and even fouler things. With his armies, he launched a sudden invasion of Hyrule and managed to steal away the Triforce of Power, and used its magic to sieze control of the land. Fearing the worst, the princess Zelda split the remaining Triforce, the Triforce of Wisdom, into eight pieces, and hid the pieces in far-flung labyrinths and temples throughout the kingdom. Ganon kidnapped the princess to try to extract from her the locations of the scattered Triforce pieces, but not before she sent her servant Impa to search the land for one brave enough to resist the Prince of Darkness."

At this Gonda interjected. "Wait, Impa? Impa wasn't just some servant woman, she was one of the seven sages, and a fierce warrior! I just told you all that! Have you forgotten already?" "That's not how I learned it." Rejoined Thaddeus, haughtily. "Perhaps your memory isn't what it used to be, my very old friend." Gonda's only reply then was further grumbling. Thaddeus resumed his tale. "And as luck or fate would have it, find such a hero she did. Link, The Hero of Hyrule, a mere boy then, rescued her as she was attacked by Ganon's minions in the wilderness. Seeing his bravery, she told him of the hidden Triforce pieces and the plight of the princess Zelda, and charged him with recovering them and restoring peace to the land."

Thaddeus went on to detail the boy hero's many adventures - how he accepted Impa's quest and searched high and low over the perilous wildernesses of long-ago Hyrule, how he fought the minions and monsters of the Prince of Darkness, how he navigated the terrible dungeons in which the shards of the Triforce had been secluded. And how at last, he reassembled the Triforce of wisdom, penetrated Ganon's fortress deep within Death Mountain (a place that had figured prominently in Gonda's tale as well), and slew Ganon in single combat.

"Drawing back on his bow, the Hero let fly with a final silver arrow. His aim was true, and with a blinding flash, the magical arrow pierced Ganon's hide and split his dark heart! Zelda was rescued, the Triforces were restored, and peace returned to the land. And the Hero, Link - well, he married the grateful Princess of course, and they lived happily ever after, ruling the land with wisdom and courage."

Myrra applauded. "A rousing tale, indeed! That was better than I'd hoped for, boy." Gonda though was not so easily satisfied, not after Thaddeus's badgering of him all through his own telling. "...What, that's it?" said Gonda, after a pause. "Pretty short, wasn't it?"

"Short? I must have been talking for at least half an hour just now!" Rejoined Thaddeus.

"Maybe so, but what did you tell us about? Seven or eight dungeons, each one the same as the last. Oh, the hero fought a horde of monsters beneath the earth and found the first Triforce piece! Then he fought a horde of monsters elsewhere beneath the earth and found the second Triforce piece! Ha! Aye, you dragged it out a fair bit, but if that's the whole of your version of the story, you could've told everything worth telling in five minutes. Now, the way I tell it, there's, ah...variety! Intrigue! Romance! Not just a bunch of sword fights."

Gonda paused to take a swig of ale, then said: "And besides all that, my version's got going for it that it's true, at least. You didn't even get the number of Triforce pieces right. Everyone knows there're three of them, not two. It's right there in the name: Tri-force, fer the Goddesses's sake."

"Well...I didn't say there were only two," Thaddeus replied, "it's just that only two of them that figure in the legend. Besides, if your seven Sages were so important in what happened, why is it I've never even heard of them? They're a plain fabrication, nothing more."

"Well..." said Myrra, "I'm not so sure about that, Thaddeus. *I* remember the seven Sages pretty well myself. The way we tell the legend out in the west, they were indeed pretty important."

Gonda's face lit up. "There, y'see? Myrra knows the truth of it, lad! My version's how it *really* happened."

"Heh heh, slow down, old timer," continued Myrra, "I didn't quite say that. The way I learned it growing up - yes, the seven Sages sealed Ganondorf away in the Sacred Realm when he tried to steal the Triforce, but that was long before the Hero's time. Hundreds of years later, a wizard by the name of Aghanim usurped the throne of Hyrule, imprisoned the princess Zelda, and tried to break the seals on the sacred realm to free Ganon.

"Why he wanted to do that, I'm not quite sure. Maybe he thought that Ganon would reward him with mystical power. Oh and, by the way, the way I learned it, the dark lord's name was indeed Ganondorf at first, but after he had made his wish on the Triforce, he began to call himself Mandrag Ganon."

This clearly raised Thaddeus's spirits. "How interesting...I admit I'd noticed discrepancies in the dark lord's name in a few tellings of the legend I've heard, but if what you say is true, that would explain it all very nicely."

"Anyway," continued Myrra, "this was what Aghanim was up to, and this was when the Hero, Link, entered the picture. He rescued Zelda from her prison in the castle, retrieved the long-lost Master Sword, and with it killed Aghanim, but not before Aghanim had broken the seals on the Sacred Realm. This realm had been transformed by Ganon's evil sorcery into a dark mirror of Hyrule, and with the seals broken Ganon's armies of monsters began to pour forth and lay waste to the land.

So into the dark world the Hero went, freeing the descendents of the seven sages, who'd been imprisoned there by Aghanim. And yes, there were many adventures on the way, and all of them rather different from the ones either of you have told of tonight...but, well, I'll not bother with the details. In the end, with the help of the sages' descendants, Link broke the seal on Ganon's castle within the dark realm, then stormed the castle and killed him in single combat. The Triforce was redeemed from Ganon's evil grasp, and peace was restored throughout the land."

"Are you quite sure about that, Myrra dear?" said Gonda, his skepticism written plainly accross his face. Thaddeus chimed in as well, his earlier certainty now showing signs of weakening. "Indeed...one old bumpkin's poor memory would be one thing, but that two of you could both have learned it so differently from me..."

Myrra went on. "Truth is, I've seen this happen before. All types of people come through my tavern - people from every part of New Hyrule, and from more distant places too. When they get to telling each other stories, usually the Legend of Zelda gets brought out before long. And any time it does, there's always at least two folks who disagree about how it goes. Matter of fact, I've had break up more than one bar fight over that legend in my time." Her usual grin broadened at the doubtlessly violent memories.

"It seems every place in the world has its own version of the Legend of Zelda. I heard one lady say that Ganondorf wasn't banished to the Sacred Realm at all, but to another place she called the Twilight Realm - she insisted it was a different thing entirely, and her whole story revolved around it. It had its own princess and everything. A few people say that Old Hyrule lies beneath the ocean somewhere. They claim it was flooded by the Goddesses to imprison Ganondorf, and that the Hero and the Princess Zelda arose to fight him when he escaped, before leading some islanders here to found New Hyrule. And those are just a few of the things I've heard. Some people call the thief of the Triforce Ganondorf, some call him Ganon - a few call Zelda's enemy by other names too. Sometimes the Hero comes from a forest, others from an island or a small town. Once he was even from a city in the sky, and the teller said we were all the offspring of these sky-people. Why, people can't even seem to agree on the Hero's name. Half the time he's called Link, but just as often it's a one of a thousand other names."

Gonda listened to all this in bemused silence. Meanwhile, Thaddeus's face had grown more and more downturned throughout Myrra's account, and now he looked to be suffering an existential crisis. "But how can this be?!" He cried at last. "The Legend of Zelda is the best-known tale in all of New Hyrule! The royal family claim descendance in a direct line from Zelda herself - it's the whole basis of their legitimacy! How can it be that no-one knows what actually happened?"

"Makes you wonder what the king and queen would have to say about it, doesn't it?" said Myrra, winking. "But it's a good question. There're a few things that never change in the story. There's always the Triforce, for one. There's always someone after the Triforce - usually it's Ganon - there's always the princess Zelda, and there's always the Hero. And usually Ganon gets sealed away at some point before or after the Hero defeats him. I suppose once, a long time ago, something like all these stories really happened. There was probably a Princess Zelda and a hero, Link, and they probably defended their kingdom and the Triforce from someone, maybe called Ganon, who tried to take it.

"But that's the thing about about legends, you know? Someone tells about something they saw happen, and maybe they get it right the first time, but the people they tell it to remember it a little differently than it was told. And then they go off to all the different villages and cities they come from, and tell what they remember to their families and friends, and it gets handed down from parents to children, and bit by bit, it changes. One part gets forgotten, and another gets made up to fill the gaps. And in a few hundred years, everyone's got their own version of it. With a bit of luck, though, they'll all have kept heart of the story, what it really means. Because it's not the details that make a story worth telling. It's the broad strokes, the shape of it, the meaning of it. That's what resonates with people, so that's what stays around even when the particular facts have been forgotten."

Gonda had been staring intently into his tankard of ale for some time now. "Strange...mighty strange." he said at last. Thaddeus too seemed to be thinking deeply on Myrra's words. "Perhaps I've had too much wine to think clearly about all this...but if I'm not mistaken..." something dawned on him. "All these different legends, and no-one seems to know that they're different...how long did it take for this to happen? And then there's the question of what the historical truth behind it all is. Someone could build a significant academic career trying to answer these questions." He sat in silence for a moment, then rose a bit unsteadily from his seat by the bar. "Gonda, sir, I suppose I owe you an apology for being so...hasty, earlier. Perhaps we were both rather far off the truth." "Huh." was Gonda's only answer.

"And thank you, Myrra. This has been most stimulating. Now if you'll both excuse me, it's grown late and I must return to the dormitories."

"Come to think of it," said Myrra, "I think it's almost closing time." The shaft of sunlight that had earlier cast the tale-tellers in sharp relief had long since vanished, and night had well and truly fallen. "You think you can manage to get up to your room, old-timer?" she said to Gonda. He chuckled. "Heh, I'm not so old as all that. Still spry enough to come all this way out to Castle Town to do business, ain't I?" He polished off his tankard with one last great swig, then stood to leave. "I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and thanks for talking some sense into that schoolboy. I suppose I shoulda known better myself, often as I've been in this tavern. Still...'tis all mighty strange, isn't?" "Indeed it is," Myrra answered, "but no stranger than the Legends themselves." And she watched him climb the stairs to the rooms over the tavern.

-Author's Note-

This story was one that's been floating around in my head for a few years. It came about one day when I was thinking about various LoZ timeline theories, and how I didn't really like the triple-threaded timeline that Nintendo had published as "official" at the time. It occurred to me that another way of making sense of the stories would be to take the series' title more literally: it's called the Legend of Zelda because each game is a different version of the same legend. Perhaps the real plot of the series should be understood as taking place in a kingdom where this legend exists about Zelda and Link and Ganon, but because the events happened so long ago (if they happened at all), there are now many different versions of the legend that people tell, depending where they're from. Eventually I had the idea of presenting this theory in fanfic form. Anyway, this is my first serious attempt at writing fanfiction, and I hope some of you find it interesting.


End file.
